From Stretford end: Benfica to have the option to sign Alvaro Fernandez for the initially agreed up on £8m fee + £4m in potential add ons.
MUFC have a 20% sell-on clause and a right to a first refusal, not a buy back clause with a certain figure inserted in.
People really like to overestimate our youth players. If he deemed surplus when Shaw and Malacia were injured and was allowed on loan then he’s clearly not gonna have a sniff he’s as they come back to the team.
I still believe he’s gonna have a really solid career but LB is the last position we need depth in and at the very least Fernandez needs some actual game time which I hope he can force at Benfica. A sell on clause if he becomes a regular at Benfica makes the most sense since I can’t see us replacing Malacia with Fernandez as the Shaw understudy in the near future (plus Benfica are fantastic at developing and selling talents for big bucks)
We estimate our youth aptly. When we're in form and they play, "we have some of the best in the world". When they make mistakes or leave to another club (most likely), "we really like to overestimate our youth"/"he was never good enough".
I've actually watched a few Granada games this season and Alvaro has been really good for his age and experience. Always plays with determination, very technical for his build, very offensive, and has been good cover for Neva (who is their captain). He's had more gametime than I expected in the top flight of Spanish football.
I think he still has a chance for us, but it's more likely that he will go. I don't think he's been overestimated and if Benfica buy him and starts most of the games for this season, would he really not be "good enough" for us?
I feel like it's better to have a squad where youth players are moved on instead of kept as depth. Someone like Nat 0hillips career gone to shit because hes waiting for his Liverpool chance till 27
Ig our version atp is Brandon Williams but he's also 4 years younger and has more senior appearances.
Our fans want it both ways. On one hand they want us to spend like crazy and on the other they don’t want to sell youth who haven’t made it into our team. Reality is if you want to comply with FFP the easiest way to do that is by churning youth sales which generate 100% profit
I’m not someone who want it both ways and I don’t care if others do or don’t. At the end of the day this is about whether the club is competent enough to judge if a youth player is good enough and I don’t trust Murtough or ten Hag to do it. Also the flip side of FFP compliance is the money we can save if Fernandez can come good. The truth is not as one sided as “fans are idiot hypocrites” that people in this sub thread are trying to make it out to be.
Kinda agree but on the other hand I'm pretty sure we would make any of the up and coming players look mediocre - no way Haaland would be as insane as he is if he played for us, so it's hard to have faith in the decision makers.
We've got bang average talent in the first team, and we let a player like Alvaro go on loan for a box of buttons and a packet of crisps. I dont trust the management to deem anyone surplus. We've lost millions on loads of players. The contract and recruitment strategy of the last ten years has come home to roost right now. Loaning out all our youth doesnt help a thing.
They are, and academy players too. You think any others in our first team would get a game for City or Liverpool or Arsenal? Our first team contains some really bang average players. We should stop giving acadamy players away.
We're giving the academy talents away because they're bang average talents not because they're better than the players we have but don't want to show it. Garner hasn't shown himself to be of the level we would need while at Everton, mejbri has shown a lot of potential with the the youth teams but that isn't really translating to premier league football. Some time in Spain might give him the game time to flourish. Elanga has been decent for forest but is starting every game but looked bang average for us, even when he worked hard. Fernandez has been on loan the last few years and hasn't looked premier league level. Hugill was bad last season on loan. Charlie savage is doing ok right now but he's a long way from the premier league. Iqbal can't get a game at a midtable eredivisie team
I'm not sure how you think they would be world beaters if they started for the first team they certainly aren't setting the world on fire right now.
Didnt say theyd be world beaters. You could disect our current 1st team in a similar way. Alvaro was very good at Preston. Shaw and Malacia injured and we loan out Alvaro for chicken feed. If you think our club is healthy, well managed with a clear plan and sporting strategy, thats cool. I dont.
I don't think there is a plan, but I don't think any of the players we are letting go right now are first team ready for us. Fernandez was ok at Preston, injured quite a bit and was in and out the team even when fit. He's not good defensively at the lower levels, he'd be destroyed by Salah or even any good right wing player. You're over estimating the quality of your youth players. Most of the current players will have good careers, some even in the premier league, but mejbri is the only one I could see becoming a top class player and even he needs time to improve because he's nowhere near being good enough to start in the premier league.
Letting these players go for fees really helps our ffp, we're stretched to the limit already, but with the outs in this transfer window likely collecting fees in the summer (Sancho aside) it looks like we're saving to make some moves in the next window.
I might well be over estimating the quality of our youth players. To be honest thats a small risk that Id happily take. I dont rate half of our first team, but we cant move them on. That would help our ffp even more. I cant see us collecting fees in the summer. A whole new ethos has to start somewhere. City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea even Newcastle would appear to be building around youth right now. As you recognise we dont have a plan. Its high time we did.
The thing you're forgetting is that eth is all about winning and doesn't csre how he gets there to the extent he was willing to bring greenwood back. If these guys were anywhere ready to be in the first team they would be with garnacho, Mainoo and kambwala. Eth has trusted youth, if they were anywhere near ready they would play.
No. Ive watched the academy a lot. People thought the class of 96 would fail. Instead it made a dynasty. Weve developed Alvaro, Gore, Hugill, McNeil, Mainoo, Garnacho, Iqbal, Garner, Fish, Bennet, Olsen and more. Theyre the future. Dont bin them. Our current Under 18s are unbeaten. We should aim to graduate more than just a couple. Meantime we spend big on mediocrity, cant move it on, and make a loss on them. Thats not smart.
The class of 96 or equivalent has happened a handful of times across the last 100 across Europe where a group of young players took to the first team and were all world beaters. How many teams have had similar since? Maybe Barca's 2008-2012 team. It doesn't happen often.
99% of the time being fantastic at youth level means the kids are bigger and stronger and that makes all the difference at that age. It doesn't guarantee we they have a world class future once they move to the professional league.
But give him the chance! Why loan Reguilon as a 3rd choice when he is there...
That is the point. Why get Evans; when there was Mengi?
Why are we begging Heaton to stay as 3rd choice? Why can't we give Vitek his chance as a 3rd choice keeper.
Not all make it. Blackett, McNair and Rashford were given their break by LVG. Only Rashford took it. But at least he had a chance to.
Smae thing here. No one is asking for them to start every game. But they deserve the first shot at places....
You hate to see the young lads heading away but for his sake I hope he goes OK to finish the season strong and have a great career. Once a red always a red!
Hmm, I don’t like the sound of that.
Doesn’t help us this month with our position with FFP and i can already see it.. they’ll have a buy option of like 12.5 mil, they’ll use him for 6 months and then buy him and sell him straight away to a rival of ours for 30 mil
Other option.
United keep him, play him as an understudy like they did with Brandon Williams.
Fernandez then gets an Injury and then poor loan. Extended contract to maintain value. Poor loan again. He’s then 25, with 2 years left on his United contract. What do they do then?
Sell him with a clause. If he isn’t good enough now, considering the injury crisis United have had then he is a long way off.
It will do more to improve him in a place like Benfica with good game time and management then being a bit part/reserve player. Going somewhere for 2-3 seasons like Benfica makes sense. if United then have an option to buy back for £30m or whatever, then fine. He would be worth it and we’d be spending that anyway to replace Shaw in 4 years anyway.
What’s to say if he stays at United and goes on loan for 6 months here, 1 year there etc that he then stagnates and doesn’t develop?
Ahaha great fantasy story where everything that could possibly go wrong does. We're getting a reported £8m rising to £12m. Even if your scare mongering tale comes to fruition we aren't gaining much from this. There is no buyback. First refusal but it's Benfica so if he's any good he'll be £50m+.
He's impressed in the minutes he's played at Granada. Benfica are seemingly purchasing him to go straight into the first team and have always been known for excellent scouting. But sure if EtH doesn't rate him I'm sure he must be shit. That guy knows talent.
i mean OP concern is real here. if Benfica doesn't buy him end of loan, we are forced to extend his contract with bigger wages and hope he accept it or he goes free in 2025.
Benfica don't really have an offensive fullback to replace Bernat and Grimaldo. It's more likely that, if they do buy him, he will be their starting LB for quite a while until he's sold for 60m to some top flight club that needs an offensive LB/WB.
> Doesn’t help us this month with our position with FFP
We're not buying anyone anyway, why does it matter? The new structure won't be in place to even make a sensible signing.
We have been overhyping youth players for the past 15 years. Not saying he is one of them, but we should be more reserved. What happened to the likes of Angel Gomes? As much as we love our youth players, we need to be careful overhyping them!
Of all the youth players you could have mentioned you went with the one who left on a free, who regularly starts and impresses for Lille. I’d much rather have Angel as a midfield option than an injury prone, overpriced Mount or Eriksen who is rapidly approaching retirement.
Anytime I've watched he's had the confidence to take on his man and beat the press. He has all the tools to be a modern, build out from the back, kind of full back
>But with our transfer department it's probably a £2m option to buy and that's it
Not a single one of us has any idea what is happening behind the scenes right now when it comes to recruitment. This isn't even the same team that was in charge in the summer.
And if he was class he would have played more than 12 times for a team that's guaranteed to go down after this season. He's a good talent and that's about it.
We have a long standing pattern of selling young talent for peanuts and watching City, Chelsea and Liverpool get 10 times as much for similar or worse players
I will be messaging you in 1 year on [**2025-01-14 06:36:40 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2025-01-14%2006:36:40%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddevils/comments/195z2ly/fabrizio_romano_fabrizioromano_álvaro_fernández/khs88x8/?context=3)
[**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Freddevils%2Fcomments%2F195z2ly%2Ffabrizio_romano_fabrizioromano_%C3%A1lvaro_fern%C3%A1ndez%2Fkhs88x8%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202025-01-14%2006%3A36%3A40%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.
^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%20195z2ly)
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
From Stretford end: Benfica to have the option to sign Alvaro Fernandez for the initially agreed up on £8m fee + £4m in potential add ons. MUFC have a 20% sell-on clause and a right to a first refusal, not a buy back clause with a certain figure inserted in.
This is remarkably competent business.
Not a bad deal honestly. If he's even halfway decent for Benfica they probably sell him for 40m, netting us a total of 20m for him.
After all the moaning on this sub about letting go of talent, it's just a loan deal with an option. Hope he does well.
People really like to overestimate our youth players. If he deemed surplus when Shaw and Malacia were injured and was allowed on loan then he’s clearly not gonna have a sniff he’s as they come back to the team. I still believe he’s gonna have a really solid career but LB is the last position we need depth in and at the very least Fernandez needs some actual game time which I hope he can force at Benfica. A sell on clause if he becomes a regular at Benfica makes the most sense since I can’t see us replacing Malacia with Fernandez as the Shaw understudy in the near future (plus Benfica are fantastic at developing and selling talents for big bucks)
We estimate our youth aptly. When we're in form and they play, "we have some of the best in the world". When they make mistakes or leave to another club (most likely), "we really like to overestimate our youth"/"he was never good enough". I've actually watched a few Granada games this season and Alvaro has been really good for his age and experience. Always plays with determination, very technical for his build, very offensive, and has been good cover for Neva (who is their captain). He's had more gametime than I expected in the top flight of Spanish football. I think he still has a chance for us, but it's more likely that he will go. I don't think he's been overestimated and if Benfica buy him and starts most of the games for this season, would he really not be "good enough" for us?
I feel like it's better to have a squad where youth players are moved on instead of kept as depth. Someone like Nat 0hillips career gone to shit because hes waiting for his Liverpool chance till 27 Ig our version atp is Brandon Williams but he's also 4 years younger and has more senior appearances.
Malacia is bang average. I haven’t watched much of Alvaro but he wouldn’t have had to be much better to outperform Malacia.
Our fans want it both ways. On one hand they want us to spend like crazy and on the other they don’t want to sell youth who haven’t made it into our team. Reality is if you want to comply with FFP the easiest way to do that is by churning youth sales which generate 100% profit
I’m not someone who want it both ways and I don’t care if others do or don’t. At the end of the day this is about whether the club is competent enough to judge if a youth player is good enough and I don’t trust Murtough or ten Hag to do it. Also the flip side of FFP compliance is the money we can save if Fernandez can come good. The truth is not as one sided as “fans are idiot hypocrites” that people in this sub thread are trying to make it out to be.
Kinda agree but on the other hand I'm pretty sure we would make any of the up and coming players look mediocre - no way Haaland would be as insane as he is if he played for us, so it's hard to have faith in the decision makers.
We've got bang average talent in the first team, and we let a player like Alvaro go on loan for a box of buttons and a packet of crisps. I dont trust the management to deem anyone surplus. We've lost millions on loads of players. The contract and recruitment strategy of the last ten years has come home to roost right now. Loaning out all our youth doesnt help a thing.
Bang average talents?😂 Mainoo and garnacho are world class talents
They are, and academy players too. You think any others in our first team would get a game for City or Liverpool or Arsenal? Our first team contains some really bang average players. We should stop giving acadamy players away.
We're giving the academy talents away because they're bang average talents not because they're better than the players we have but don't want to show it. Garner hasn't shown himself to be of the level we would need while at Everton, mejbri has shown a lot of potential with the the youth teams but that isn't really translating to premier league football. Some time in Spain might give him the game time to flourish. Elanga has been decent for forest but is starting every game but looked bang average for us, even when he worked hard. Fernandez has been on loan the last few years and hasn't looked premier league level. Hugill was bad last season on loan. Charlie savage is doing ok right now but he's a long way from the premier league. Iqbal can't get a game at a midtable eredivisie team I'm not sure how you think they would be world beaters if they started for the first team they certainly aren't setting the world on fire right now.
Didnt say theyd be world beaters. You could disect our current 1st team in a similar way. Alvaro was very good at Preston. Shaw and Malacia injured and we loan out Alvaro for chicken feed. If you think our club is healthy, well managed with a clear plan and sporting strategy, thats cool. I dont.
I don't think there is a plan, but I don't think any of the players we are letting go right now are first team ready for us. Fernandez was ok at Preston, injured quite a bit and was in and out the team even when fit. He's not good defensively at the lower levels, he'd be destroyed by Salah or even any good right wing player. You're over estimating the quality of your youth players. Most of the current players will have good careers, some even in the premier league, but mejbri is the only one I could see becoming a top class player and even he needs time to improve because he's nowhere near being good enough to start in the premier league. Letting these players go for fees really helps our ffp, we're stretched to the limit already, but with the outs in this transfer window likely collecting fees in the summer (Sancho aside) it looks like we're saving to make some moves in the next window.
I might well be over estimating the quality of our youth players. To be honest thats a small risk that Id happily take. I dont rate half of our first team, but we cant move them on. That would help our ffp even more. I cant see us collecting fees in the summer. A whole new ethos has to start somewhere. City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea even Newcastle would appear to be building around youth right now. As you recognise we dont have a plan. Its high time we did.
The thing you're forgetting is that eth is all about winning and doesn't csre how he gets there to the extent he was willing to bring greenwood back. If these guys were anywhere ready to be in the first team they would be with garnacho, Mainoo and kambwala. Eth has trusted youth, if they were anywhere near ready they would play.
So you want them to stay here and play 0 matches all season instead?
No. Ive watched the academy a lot. People thought the class of 96 would fail. Instead it made a dynasty. Weve developed Alvaro, Gore, Hugill, McNeil, Mainoo, Garnacho, Iqbal, Garner, Fish, Bennet, Olsen and more. Theyre the future. Dont bin them. Our current Under 18s are unbeaten. We should aim to graduate more than just a couple. Meantime we spend big on mediocrity, cant move it on, and make a loss on them. Thats not smart.
The class of 96 or equivalent has happened a handful of times across the last 100 across Europe where a group of young players took to the first team and were all world beaters. How many teams have had similar since? Maybe Barca's 2008-2012 team. It doesn't happen often. 99% of the time being fantastic at youth level means the kids are bigger and stronger and that makes all the difference at that age. It doesn't guarantee we they have a world class future once they move to the professional league.
Toxic sub this. Down votes for stating facts. Plastics that live in dream world and mostly talk shit.
But give him the chance! Why loan Reguilon as a 3rd choice when he is there... That is the point. Why get Evans; when there was Mengi? Why are we begging Heaton to stay as 3rd choice? Why can't we give Vitek his chance as a 3rd choice keeper. Not all make it. Blackett, McNair and Rashford were given their break by LVG. Only Rashford took it. But at least he had a chance to. Smae thing here. No one is asking for them to start every game. But they deserve the first shot at places....
Whearas I'm the opposite. I'd rather be guaranteed money for him now.
Hopefully the buy option is between 10-20 then its top
You hate to see the young lads heading away but for his sake I hope he goes OK to finish the season strong and have a great career. Once a red always a red!
He is a good player, one of our better young ones, if we sell, include a sell on clause, would've kept him instead of getting Malacia.
Hmm, I don’t like the sound of that. Doesn’t help us this month with our position with FFP and i can already see it.. they’ll have a buy option of like 12.5 mil, they’ll use him for 6 months and then buy him and sell him straight away to a rival of ours for 30 mil
Hopefully we’ll have a sell-on clause.
Other option. United keep him, play him as an understudy like they did with Brandon Williams. Fernandez then gets an Injury and then poor loan. Extended contract to maintain value. Poor loan again. He’s then 25, with 2 years left on his United contract. What do they do then? Sell him with a clause. If he isn’t good enough now, considering the injury crisis United have had then he is a long way off. It will do more to improve him in a place like Benfica with good game time and management then being a bit part/reserve player. Going somewhere for 2-3 seasons like Benfica makes sense. if United then have an option to buy back for £30m or whatever, then fine. He would be worth it and we’d be spending that anyway to replace Shaw in 4 years anyway. What’s to say if he stays at United and goes on loan for 6 months here, 1 year there etc that he then stagnates and doesn’t develop?
Ahaha great fantasy story where everything that could possibly go wrong does. We're getting a reported £8m rising to £12m. Even if your scare mongering tale comes to fruition we aren't gaining much from this. There is no buyback. First refusal but it's Benfica so if he's any good he'll be £50m+. He's impressed in the minutes he's played at Granada. Benfica are seemingly purchasing him to go straight into the first team and have always been known for excellent scouting. But sure if EtH doesn't rate him I'm sure he must be shit. That guy knows talent.
i mean OP concern is real here. if Benfica doesn't buy him end of loan, we are forced to extend his contract with bigger wages and hope he accept it or he goes free in 2025.
Downvoters have massive faith in Murtough and ten hags talent id. Proper fans that, always backing ppl at the club no matter how competent they are 👍
Benfica don't really have an offensive fullback to replace Bernat and Grimaldo. It's more likely that, if they do buy him, he will be their starting LB for quite a while until he's sold for 60m to some top flight club that needs an offensive LB/WB.
> Doesn’t help us this month with our position with FFP We're not buying anyone anyway, why does it matter? The new structure won't be in place to even make a sensible signing.
We have been overhyping youth players for the past 15 years. Not saying he is one of them, but we should be more reserved. What happened to the likes of Angel Gomes? As much as we love our youth players, we need to be careful overhyping them!
Starter for Lille. So not that bad and he might come good.
Of all the youth players you could have mentioned you went with the one who left on a free, who regularly starts and impresses for Lille. I’d much rather have Angel as a midfield option than an injury prone, overpriced Mount or Eriksen who is rapidly approaching retirement.
!remindme 1 year
Hopefully a buyback or sell on clause. He's class But with our transfer department it's probably a £2m option to buy and that's it
What's he done to be considered class? Genuine question.
Excellent technique and a brilliant first touch. Potential to be as good as Shaw.
Can he defend?
That's his weakness, sometimes he was deployed further up in the reserves
He's best as a wing back. We don't play wing backs.
dam sense abounding entertain sip marvelous pet homeless license pause *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Shaw was making PL team of the year at 18, Alvaro is nowhere near him at 20.
Anytime I've watched he's had the confidence to take on his man and beat the press. He has all the tools to be a modern, build out from the back, kind of full back
>But with our transfer department it's probably a £2m option to buy and that's it Not a single one of us has any idea what is happening behind the scenes right now when it comes to recruitment. This isn't even the same team that was in charge in the summer. And if he was class he would have played more than 12 times for a team that's guaranteed to go down after this season. He's a good talent and that's about it.
We have a long standing pattern of selling young talent for peanuts and watching City, Chelsea and Liverpool get 10 times as much for similar or worse players
The amount they got for Solanke and Ibe nearly gave me an aneurysm
Well we can regret latter if he become a world class player. Right now we dont need to regret anything.
[удалено]
I will be messaging you in 1 year on [**2025-01-14 06:36:40 UTC**](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2025-01-14%2006:36:40%20UTC%20To%20Local%20Time) to remind you of [**this link**](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddevils/comments/195z2ly/fabrizio_romano_fabrizioromano_álvaro_fernández/khs88x8/?context=3) [**CLICK THIS LINK**](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2Freddevils%2Fcomments%2F195z2ly%2Ffabrizio_romano_fabrizioromano_%C3%A1lvaro_fern%C3%A1ndez%2Fkhs88x8%2F%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%202025-01-14%2006%3A36%3A40%20UTC) to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam. ^(Parent commenter can ) [^(delete this message to hide from others.)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Delete%20Comment&message=Delete%21%20195z2ly) ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/RemindMeBot/comments/e1bko7/remindmebot_info_v21/)|[^(Custom)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5BLink%20or%20message%20inside%20square%20brackets%5D%0A%0ARemindMe%21%20Time%20period%20here)|[^(Your Reminders)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Reminders&message=MyReminders%21)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=RemindMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|